Newport News deer hunting still point of disagreement as season begins

Newport News planned to extend its bow hunting season for deer this year, but that's not happening anymore. The state's urban archery program extends hunting season by about four months. The City Council needed to sign off on participation, but the idea never got to them. City staff said they weren't told the program required the council's OK. So if you want to bow hunt on your property, you'll have to wait until Oct. 6.

Newport News planned to extend its bow hunting season for deer this year, but that's not happening anymore. The state's urban archery program extends hunting season by about four months. The City Council needed to sign off on participation, but the idea never got to them. City staff said they weren't told the program required the council's OK. So if you want to bow hunt on your property, you'll have to wait until Oct. 6.

In the Fisher’s Landing neighborhood and some surrounding areas, a small herd of deer roves the woods, bounded on two sides by the James River and Fishers Creek in central Newport News — it’s not uncommon to see the deer milling about or munching on yard plants.

Saturday marked the start of the city’s bowhunting season. Hunting with firearms is not permitted in Newport News.

Some people are planning to hunt or allow hunters onto their property as a means of managing the deer population. Others in the area think hunting has no place in the neighborhood — or at least that more regulations and rules should be in place.

The city’s draft of state legislative priorities indicates it might push for limiting where people can shoot arrows, as well.

Todd Engelmeyer, a biologist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said it’s not uncommon for this type of disagreement to bubble up in a locality.

In Newport News, the deer are not overpopulated to the extent that they can’t find food or are a health risk to themselves, according to Engelmeyer.

The deer herds are healthy, but to some, the population is culturally overabundant, meaning there are more deer than some people can tolerate, Engelmeyer said. When there’s a cultural overabundance, issues aren’t related to the animals’ health — they’re related to the risk of a deer running into traffic, eating decorative plants or interacting with people on their property.

“Everybody’s tolerance is different and changes per location,” Engelmeyer said. “At an airport, the cultural capacity is probably zero because you don’t want deer running on a runway.”

In a neighborhood, the situation isn’t nearly as easy — people figure out the balance for what they can tolerate and what they want. And they often don’t agree with each other.

Engelmeyer said across the state, hunting is vital to managing the deer population — it’s also a major funding mechanism for wildlife and conservation research. Game and inland fisheries checks populations, herd sizes and hunting rates and adjusts the seasons to keep the population at a healthy level.

Hunting in the city

People have long been able to hunt on their property throughout the state, but in Newport News, few people do — 160 deer were killed in the city last year. Andy Lunsford, Newport News’ parks superintendent, said that most hunting occurs on larger properties where the owner invites friends and relatives to use a tree stand.

Many people only became aware they could hunt on their property, regardless of size or location or zoning, because the city had earlier announced its plan to join the state’s Urban Archery Program to extend the season.

The program’s website states the objective is to “reduce human/deer conflicts in urban areas by concentrating archery-hunting pressure in urban/suburban areas.” It calls archery hunting an “effective, quiet method for harvesting deer in urban settings.”

The program is a tool for localities to manage deer populations and would have extended Newport News’ hunting season by four months, starting the season in September, but the city did not end up joining this year. City spokeswoman Kim Lee said the city initially thought the city manager could enroll Newport News, but she actually needed approval from the City Council.

Lee said the city heard from many people after the extended season was announced and that the city would involve the public as it considered the topic again.

On Sept. 1, what would have been the first day of hunting season, a hunting official was in and around Fisher’s Landing keeping an eye out for anyone who might try to hunt that day, residents of the area said.

Concerns about urban hunting

Carrie Spackman, who lives just outside of Fisher’s Landing, has been a vocal opponent of hunting in her neighborhood. She notified others that people in the neighborhood were gauging interest in hunting and seeing who would let a hunter onto their property.

She and others worry about a stray arrow going off someone’s property and hitting a house, car, pedestrian or pet. They worry about deer being shot and running away, past kids walking to their bus stop, before ending up in the road or someone else’s yard. They want to see signs on property where hunting is occurring so people know what’s going on.

Eric Kean, the Fisher’s Landing homeowners association president, did not think people should have to put signs up — out of respect for their privacy and saying it’s a personal decision that takes place legally on private property.

He said he’s planning to put up a tall fence to help keep deer out of his yard and has seen as many as 18 gather in his yard at one time. He’s also heard from neighbors whose pets got into altercations with adult deer who were with their fawns.

Spackman and several other residents of the area gathered in her home recently to discuss deer hunting. Most didn’t see the deer as much of a problem and said development has driven them into the neighborhood, she said.

Engelmeyer pointed out that decades ago, deer stayed on Newport News Waterworks and Fort Eustis property and didn’t venture into the woods around neighborhoods.

Most at Spackman’s house also agreed they have no problem with hunting, but they don’t believe their neighborhood is the right setting. They did not feel the deer were problematic to the extent that hunters needed to manage the population.

Trusting in the system

Engelmeyer said the safety concerns about stray arrows and wounded deer are common concerns but not common occurrences. He said in his roughly 20-year career, he only had heard of one instance of a deer being shot and running into the street.

Engelmeyer placed trust in people to hunt properly, shooting to kill at close range and at a downward angle from a tree stand so the arrow either goes into the deer or into the ground. Hunters understand the scrutiny on them, so they make the effort to prepare and be safe, Engelmeyer said, pointing out that the most frequent accident he sees is a hunter falling while getting in or out of a tree stand.

For Spackman and others, they look at how close homes are to each other and still see the risks associated with having people shoot arrows at the deer.

When Spackman invited neighbors to talk about deer, she also had over City Councilman Dave Jenkins, who said more regulation on deer hunting was a topic he felt the General Assembly could explore.

The city’s draft of state legislative priorities, released in a City Council meeting agenda, includes expanding the city’s authority to limit shooting arrows in “heavily populated areas.”

The draft states counties have that authority, so cities should as well. “Potential injuries from errant bows create public safety concerns regardless of whether land is in a city or county,” the draft reads. The council will discuss its legislative priorities during a work session Tuesday afternoon.

In his experience, Engelmeyer said he hasn’t seen many localities come forward to request more regulation over hunting. He didn’t think it was a necessary measure either because there are weapons laws to prosecute someone who hunts negligently and those instances are infrequent.

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Reyes can be reached by phone at 757-247-4692. Follow him on Twitter at @jdauzreyes.